The Tactics Media Unions Are Using to Build Membership

Executive Summary

Over the past decade, we’ve seen media unions systematically establish a solid footprint in a rapidly developing industry. Looking at how they’ve done it offers a blueprint for would-be union organizers in other industries and is perhaps even an early sign that conditions are ripening for a labor comeback.

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Union membership as a share of the workforce in the United States has fallen to its lowest point in 80 years, but news media workers have bucked the trend, winning union recognition at roughly 30 digital news sites since 2015 and in numerous other traditional newsrooms. In total, the number of unionized workers in internet publishing has risen 20-fold since 2010. The unions representing media workers have achieved this through painstakingly old-fashioned union organizing: they have embraced the mantra of effective bargaining, though they have presented it in a new and technologically shiny package. For labor leaders in other industries, especially those where union membership is declining, the lesson is that union revival depends on aggressive representation.

As researchers in business and management who have studied labor movements across industries, we’ve learned that any successful union organizing requires overcoming three hurdles. First, workers must acquire a collective identity behind which they are willing to mobilize. Second, unions must convince workers that labor representation can improve working conditions. Third, workers must often take risks to win union representation.

Over the past decade, we’ve seen media unions systematically take these challenges on and, as a result, have established a solid footprint in a rapidly developing industry. Looking at how they’ve done it offers a blueprint for would-be union organizers in other industries and is perhaps even an early sign that conditions are ripening for a labor comeback.

How they’ve done it

The successful organizing drives at Gawker Media (2015), Vox Media (2017), Slate (2017), and The Root (2017), among others, reveal the compelling themes unions have marshaled: They listen to workers, develop adhesive organizing themes, communicate regularly, and give workers a sense of hope. This is not a secret recipe; these are tried-and-true tenets of organizing which have served unions well in the past. But in an industry that has undergone massive restructuring over the last 15 years — one in five newspapers has closed and one in three of the largest newspapers have shed staff — these tactics play directly to employees’ uncertainty about the industry and concerns that their pay is low, benefits few, and employment disposable.

But discontent is not enough to cause the leap in organizing that we’ve seen in the media industry. So how have organizers changed the equation? First, they have convinced workers that having a union as a bargaining representative will actually help workers do better. The news media unions have skillfully focused on keeping in constant touch with rank and file and aggressively using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr. When possible, they engage their employers to facilitate the organizing process. In the media industry, where many news outlets take a decidedly ideological slant, workers will exploit these leanings to encourage employers to facilitate an open discussion about the merits of union representation.

For example, before holding a vote on union recognition in 2015, Gawker Media and the local WGAE editorial staff jointly invited employees to post their views on the upcoming vote, stating that “All Gawker Media editorial employees are invited to share their thoughts on the upcoming vote in the comment section below. We like to do these things out in the open.”

Next, they have focused intensely on getting a first contract, even embedding their bargaining campaign into the organizing drive, as was done at Fast Company. In many cases, the contracts that have been negotiated are providing more than just baseline provisions: The contract at Thrillist includes merit-based raises, eight weeks paid parental leave, just cause for discipline and discharge, severance pay enhancements, and the elimination of “pre-existing non-compete agreements.” At The Intercept, the contract also includes just cause, four months of paid parental leave, and a diversity provision that ensures that “at least two candidates from groups traditionally underrepresented in journalism (i.e. women, people of color, or those identifying as LGBTQ+) will be interviewed for any vacant bargaining unit position.”

Finally, they’ve convinced media workers that organizing — and agitating — is a risk worth taking. Take, for example, workers at The Root who took their fight public by publishing a statement on “Why We’re Organizing.” Or at Thrillist, where employees staged a one-day strike to push management to reach a deal on a contract. Or, most recently, at Slate where employees voted 52 to 1 to authorize a strike over bargaining demands. Just how risky are these moves? Across the industry, owners and managers have strongly opposed union recognition, even opting to close companies like Gothamist and DNAinfo after employees voted to unionize.

A Tipping Point

Individually none of the strategies we’ve outlined above point to a new type of organizing. But taken together, and in the context of the gains that the labor movement has made among media workers, they signify to a broader renewal for organizing. There are other signs, too. First, a recent survey reveals that nearly 50% of the nonunion workers would support union representation. Public approval of unions stands at more than 60%, with younger people being even more supportive than other age groups.

Second, though the media industry may be leading the way, other industries are experiencing similarly growing protests. This year, teachers in several states as well as employees worldwide at Google drew attention by walking off the job.

Finally, it’s worth noting that unionized media workers posses the communication skills and followings necessary to constitute a mobile corps of labor ambassadors. As such, unionizing them may lead the way to the much wider unionization of creative professionals, millennials, lower-paid workers, and industrial workers threatened by technology, skill obsolescence, and shifting customer preferences.

Marick F. Masters is Director of Labor@Wayne and Professor of Business at Wayne State University.

Raymond F. Gibney is Associate Professor of Management at Penn State University at Harrisburg.